Ausra

Boosting Company Sales Price by $50M

Approach

We designed and ran a day-long media event launching the project’s operations that worked around the project’s remote location – 19 miles north of Bakersfield, California. Tigercomm used the company’s leadership and original analysis to brief Bakersfield-area media, leading to pre-event coverage that we flipped onto the national Associated Press wire service. That attention helped us cement event participation by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as Bloomberg television.

Challenge

Utility-scale solar project developer Ausra grew as a company backed by two of the biggest names in venture capital: Khosla Ventures and Kleiner-Perkins. The investors wanted to get the company acquired. Tigercomm had been Ausra’s agency of record for three years, helping the company generate a spate of national business media. Tigercomm was asked to help cap this run with a strategic communications plan for Ausra’s flagship project, which would come online during negotiations with several potential buyers.

Results

• Opening of the Kimberlina Solar Thermal Power Plant won nearly 30 stories in both national and local media.
• Our communications during final negotiations with prospective buyers created pressure that led to an estimated $50M in the final sales price.
• Ausra’s acquisition by French nuclear giant, AREVA, garnered national and international coverage.